Larry Brown Sports

The Miami Heat successfully silenced an enormous amount of critics by winning an NBA championship last season, and they don’t want any of us to forget about it. Because of their slow start that has followed incredibly high offseason expectations, the Los Angeles Lakers have drawn a number of comparisons to the 2010-2011 Heat. According to LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, the two situations are hardly alike.

“No one will ever be able to compare what we went through,” James told the Miami Herald on Friday. “Even though they’re not winning and they’re losing a lot of games, it’s still nowhere near what we went through. Yeah, right. That level of magnitude was nowhere near where ours was two years ago. Nothing. Nothing compares to it.”

Wade agreed wholeheartedly.

“Because of everything that happened in 2010 with offseason signings, it was, automatically, just a lot of negative things that was said about us,” Wade said. “(Los Angeles) didn’t go through that at the beginning. They didn’t go through anything negative about bringing those guys together, so ours started off bad and it stayed bad for a while, and then we got better.”

In a way, the Heat stars are right. LeBron was referred to as one of the greatest players of all time but had no championship hardware to show for it, so that pressure loomed over Miami. Kobe Bryant could use another ring to better his legacy, but he hardly needs it. The mystery of whether or not LeBron would be able to win his first ring created an enormous amount of pressure in itself.

However, the Heat players brought on much of the pressure that they faced last season and the year before. You didn’t see L.A. throwing any type of Three Kings introduction party when they acquired Steve Nash and Dwight Howard. It makes sense that the Heat want everyone to know they overcame more obstacles than any team in NBA history, but let us not forget that they brought much of it on themselves by acting like jackasses.

H/T Pro Basketball Talk
Photo credit: David Butler II-US PRESSWIRE

Monta Ellis and Dwyane Wade are both guards. They both have more than seven years of experience in the NBA. Both men have led their teams in scoring. While there are a number of characteristics that make the two similar, very few people would argue that Ellis is nearly as good a player as Wade. Ellis is one of those few.

During a recent interview that Pro Basketball Talk passed along, Ellis said he would put himself on the same level as Wade.

“To be honest, I would put myself in the same category as D-Wade,” Ellis said. “I mean, at the end of the day, the only thing that he has that I don’t have is more wins and two championships. That’s it. As far as playing at the same level? Competing every night? Both ends? Shooting inside and outside? Fast break? Transition? Monta Ellis have it all.”

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Dwyane Wade may be the sneakiest dirty player in the NBA. Wade has a clean-cut image that obscures how unsportsmanlike he behaves on the court.

Wade doesn’t just do what he can to win; he will actually injure an opponent if he has to. We’ve seen that time and time again. His actions on Wednesday were just the latest in an alarming pattern of dirty plays he’s committed.

During the Heat-Bobcats game on Wednesday, Wade kicked Charlotte guard Ramon Sessions in the groin for absolutely no reason:

Don’t even try to tell me that was accidental. Wade did it intentionally probably figuring he could get away with it — and he did. He was not called for a foul.

“I thought he did it on purpose,” Sessions said after the game.

What’s scary is that Wade pulls this type of move constantly. Remember Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals in 2011 when Wade pulled down Rajon Rondo, resulting in a dislocated elbow?

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The Miami Heat held a moment of silence prior to Saturday’s game against the Wizards to recognize those who were murdered in Friday’s massacre in Newtown, Conn., and they added a personal touch.

Many of the Heat players were joined by their children for the moment of silence as a way to show how personally connected they felt to the tragedy.

“Very emotional time,” LeBron James said after the game. “(Dwyane) Wade brought [the idea] up. We all thought it would be the best thing to do. Not taking anything for granted, knowing that we have our family still. Very emotional time and to have our kids out there was great.”

“The team is very close, and we all have kids. So everyone’s affected by it,” added Wade.

James told reporters before the game that a horrific event like that places life in perspective.

“Basketball, this is nothing,” James said. “These games are nothing compared to when you have a tragedy like that. It sucks that sometimes you need a tragedy to put things back in perspective, to appreciate what you have. But it does that to people. It’s unfortunate that you have to have something like that to understand what’s really important and some things that aren’t important at all. Family is the No. 1 important thing in life.”

Wade and James, who are the team’s leaders and among the most visible stars in the NBA, actively tweeted about the massacre on Friday:

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Charles Barkley called out Dwyane Wade the past two weeks, and LeBron James says the TNT analyst needs to “shut up” now that Wade proved him wrong.

The Miami Heat have appeared on TNT’s nationally televised game the past two Thursdays. Barkley has gone after Wade’s play while discussing the games on “Inside the NBA.” He has said that the Miami Heat guard is older and no longer attacks the basket the way he used to. He also has said that the Heat won’t win another title the way Wade has been playing.

Wade shot 10-for-30 in those two TNT games, averaging just 16 points.

When asked on Saturday about Barkley’s criticism, Wade seemed to indicate there was a rift between them.

“I forgot all about that guy,” he said, according to FOX Sports Florida’s Chris Tomasson.

Though Wade brushed aside Barkley’s criticism, the comments seemed to inspire him.

Wade shot 9-of-12 for 26 points in a win over the Hornets on Saturday, and he went 11-of-13 for 26 points in a win over the Hawks on Monday. The strong performances prompted LeBron James to come to his defense.

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Dwyane Wade has taken many bold fashion steps over the past few years ever since hiring a consultant to dress him. He’s worn the pointless nerd glasses, color-coordinated his finger wraps with his ties, and he even painted his toe nails. Maybe his most notable look was the hot pink pants he wore during the playoffs.

Coming in a close second are the super-skinny pants he wore on a recent team flight.

Heat teammate LeBron James was so struck by the pants that he shared a picture of them on Twitter and Instagram, saying Wade was “taking fashion to a whole new level with these pants.”

What do you think? Is Wade setting a fashion trend or is this a look he should ditch? I know what my answer is: toss em!

Photo via LeBron James/Twitter

Rajon Rondo was called for a flagrant foul during the Miami Heat’s win over the Boston Celtics after he wrapped Dwyane Wade up to prevent him from walking in for a layup. It was somewhat of a hard foul as Rondo certainly wasn’t playing the ball, and Wade ripped Rondo after the game and called it a “punk play.”

Not surprisingly, Rondo saw it differently. In fact, he thinks Wade’s complaints are a bit hypocritical.

“I don’t think it was a hard foul,” the Celtics guard said according to WEEI.com. “He sold it a little bit, and that’s basketball. They were up, he drove to the hole and I didn’t want to give up a layup. Simple as that. I didn’t yank him down or dirty plays that you’ve seen him play in the past, so that’s what it is.”

Rondo has a point. Whether the foul was out of line or not, Wade has quietly become one of the dirtier players in the NBA. In last year’s NBA playoffs, he completely laid out Darren Collison of the Pacers when Collison had a clear path to the basket. D-Wade also broke Kobe Bryant’s nose last year with a hard foul — in an All-Star game no less.

Compared to some of the dirty plays Wade has committed in the past, Rondo’s foul was nothing. Wade said he is going to remember it next time the Heat and Celtics play each other. One has to wonder if that’s going to be his excuse for yet another dirty play.